The HD7790 "Bonaire" New GPU from AMD [Edit: NOW WITH 100% MORE REVIEWS!]

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
76
Still no frametimes or anything other than freaking FPS from Anandtech. Shameful display!

Card seems pretty good esp. when you factor in the value of the Bioshock Infinite game bundled with it. The 1GB framebuffer is a little low by today's standards.
 

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
4
81
Tom's:
If you already own a Radeon HD 6870 or GeForce GTX 560, there's really no reason to spend money on a 7790, even though the new card offers better efficiency and less heat. On the other hand, if you're using a GeForce GTX 650 or Radeon HD 7770, the Bonaire-based board does offer a more notable speed-up. Should you find yourself interested, be aware that availability of Radeon HD 7790s isn't expected until the first week of April.

/yawn
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
76

Thanks for the links. I wonder what the heck HardwareCanucks meant by this:

"AMD's performance against the current crop of NVIDIA offerings may be impressive but that situation is bound to change very soon. We can't tell you what's in store but let's just say that NVIDIA certainly isn't taking this challenge lying down and is poised to respond with a full scale broadside much sooner than you may think."
 

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
8,115
0
71
Thanks for the links. I wonder what the heck HardwareCanucks meant by this:

"AMD's performance against the current crop of NVIDIA offerings may be impressive but that situation is bound to change very soon. We can't tell you what's in store but let's just say that NVIDIA certainly isn't taking this challenge lying down and is poised to respond with a full scale broadside much sooner than you may think."

Probably a full product stack refresh outside of Titan, while AMD is stable through 2013 and adds two new 7 series cards to fill in gaps.
 

dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
2,591
0
71
I think Nvidia sorely needs a stopgap product in the $150 price range more than AMD needs a $120 product. There's nothing worthwhile between a ~$110 650Ti and a ~$200 660 and the gap is pretty big.

For the 7790, I don't see the point since cheap 7850s can be had for $150. The gap between the 7770 and the 7850 is only $50.. do they really need a product in every price segment?

PC OEMs do, or more correctly, they ask for it anyway. You've already said it, because Nvidia isn't offering at $150 product, AMD can. And remember, PC OEMs don't deal with rebates, but OEM pricing, so there's none of this value stuff about "free games"
 
Last edited:

VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,188
2
76
Too bad it has only 1gb of memory. It would probably be a fun card to overclock if the performance scales as well as other 7xxx series cards.
 

svenge

Senior member
Jan 21, 2006
204
1
71
Thanks for the links. I wonder what the heck HardwareCanucks meant by this:

"AMD's performance against the current crop of NVIDIA offerings may be impressive but that situation is bound to change very soon. We can't tell you what's in store but let's just say that NVIDIA certainly isn't taking this challenge lying down and is poised to respond with a full scale broadside much sooner than you may think."

The rumors are that NVIDIA's going to be coming out with a GTX 655 / "GTX 650 Ti Boost" card shortly.
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
418
126
pretty decent upgrade option for HD4800/5700/6700 (and GTS250, 450, GTX 260...) owners I think.
 

Granseth

Senior member
May 6, 2009
258
0
71
Seems like AMD has a great cooler option for this card, at least with acoustics. But since they usually don't make the best coolers everyone is putting in their own instead.
 

Leadbox

Senior member
Oct 25, 2010
744
63
91

Arkadrel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2010
3,681
2
0
Hmm, so this would or would not be a step up from a 1GB GTX460 OC card? (820Mhz)


Well a Stock 460 is abit slower than a 6850.
It seems like the 7790's are about ~20% faster than the 6850.

Im guessing if you have a good overclock on that 460 of yours,
the differnce would be pretty small.
 

Erenhardt

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2012
3,251
105
101
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7790_DirectCU_II_OC/29.html

So bandwidth starved its getting small gains for big core OC.

If you compare 7790 to 6870 performance summary tabs:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7790_DirectCU_II_OC/26.html

You can see that there is very little gain on the 6870 side. 256bit memory would not give much of an improvement I guess.
A lot smarter poeple than most of us designed this GPU, trust them.
Is it really $100 GPU?
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_hd7790_review,1.html
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
418
126
Well a Stock 460 is abit slower than a 6850.
It seems like the 7790's are about ~20% faster than the 6850.

Im guessing if you have a good overclock on that 460 of yours,
the differnce would be pretty small.

stock GTX 460 is a rare card I think, at 820MHz the GTX 460 will perform the same as the gtx 560.
 

coffeejunkee

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2010
1,153
0
0
I think Nvidia sorely needs a stopgap product in the $150 price range more than AMD needs a $120 product. There's nothing worthwhile between a ~$110 650Ti and a ~$200 660 and the gap is pretty big.

For the 7790, I don't see the point since cheap 7850s can be had for $150. The gap between the 7770 and the 7850 is only $50.. do they really need a product in every price segment?

Where do you get those prices from? On Newegg price for GTX650Ti atm starts at $140. Yes, there's an MSI card for $115 but it's with a rebate. HD7850 starts at $180 for the 1GB version. There are some 2GB versions for slightly more but the good ones are more like $200. Lowest price for HD7770 without rebate: $120, with rebate: $90. For a really fair comparison you'll have to take future rebates on the 7790 into account as well.

Ok, so gap between 7770 and 7850 1GB at regular prices is $60, imho large enough for something around $140-160. Especially if it's a decent card which this 7790 seems to be. I do see the point because 7770 is a little too weak for 1080p entry level gaming while 7790 is just enough. Sure, 7790 for 7770 price would be nice but it might be asking too much. All in all I'd say prices represent performance quite well, except GTX650Ti has to go down a bit.
 

Arkadrel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2010
3,681
2
0
Im still really impressed by the performance of this chip.
Its clearly the fastest 128bit bus chip on the market.


The GTX 650 Ti (~10% slower than the 7790 (1075mhz)) (128bit bus chip) (221mm^2 chip)
The AMD 6870 (~1% slower than the 7790 (1075mhz)) (256bit bus chip) (255mm^2 chip)
The AMD 7790 -------------------------------------- (128bit bus chip) (160mm^2 chip)
The GTX 560 Ti (~5% faster than the 7790 (1075mhz)) (192bit bus chip) (360mm^2 chip)

Its a 128bit bus chip giveing some 192bit/256bit cards a run for the money.

The small bus means its a smaller chip => should translate into cheaper to produce, than the 192/256bit ones its competeing against. This card is gonna drive prices around this range down, which is a win for the consumers.

All in all I'd say prices represent performance quite well, except GTX650Ti has to go down a bit.
Yep if the 7790 ends up around 140$, then the 650ti would have to go down in price.
~10% performance differnce would be enough to make most people pick a AMD card instead of the simularly priced nvidia card.

Competition is good for the consumer.


----- my thoughts:

when AMD had the better of nvidia back with the 4xxx-5xxx series, that was partly because of fast GDDR speeds and lower bus widths.

Now nvidia has the better of AMD, and again its probably because of bus widths.

Its clear to me, that if you can make a chip smaller by useing smaller bus, the "increased" power usage of faster Ram speeds, is a good price to pay. Because smaller chip = less power used, so it "pays" of the increased power usage of the ram (no loss). At the same time, your chip is smaller than it would have been if you went with a wide(r) bus width = better profits / lower prices to compete on.

It has me wondering why AMD went with "384" bit width busses for their bigger cards,
instead of just going 256bit + faster GDDR speeds like nvidia did.

Would AMD have been better off this generation with 256bit bus cards for their 79xx series, and instead haveing 1600mhz GDDR ram speeds, and smaller chips clocked higher? I think so.

Anyways.... I think the 7790 is a strong addition, and is gonna drive competiton in that price range, by alot.
 
Last edited: